Barbecue chicken is a summer time staple, along with other warm weather classics like grilled corn on the cob and watermelon salad. BBQ chicken marinade is the perfect way to infuse all that flavor into ordinary chicken to turn it into something special. You simply can’t go wrong with grilled chicken. It’s easy to make, relatively inexpensive, and universally adored. This BBQ chicken marinade combines plenty of different savory spices to create the best chicken you’ll ever eat!
BBQ Chicken Marinade Ingredients
This recipe is made with ketchup, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, honey, Worcestershire sauce, smoked paprika, dry mustard powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper and vegetable oil.
How Do You Make BBQ Chicken Marinade?
Place all of the ingredients in a bowl or resealable bag. Whisk the ingredients together until fully combined. Put your chicken in the bowl or bag, then cover the bowl or seal the bag. Refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours, but 6-8 hours is really ideal. Grill, oven bake or broil your chicken as desired, then serve and enjoy.
Tips For The Perfect Marinade
This marinade can be prepared up to 3 days before you plan to use it, and will coat two pounds of chicken. Store the marinade in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it. You can freeze the marinade for up to 2 months. Store the marinade in a resealable freezer bag. Thaw the marinade in the fridge overnight before you use it. I feel that BBQ chicken marinade works best with thinner, boneless cuts of chicken. I recommend using thin cut breasts, chicken tenders or boneless skinless thighs. The bone-in cuts take a lot longer to cook, which makes it more likely that the marinade could burn before the chicken is done. If you’d like to cook bone-in pieces of chicken, I recommend you check out my BBQ chicken recipe which uses a different technique for bone-in meat to prevent it from possibly getting overly browned. Serve your chicken with a variety of side dishes such as snicker apple salad, dirty rice or asparagus salad.
Flavor Variations
This marinade is fabulous as-is, but you can add other ingredients to customize the flavors to your tastes.
Spicy: Add 1 tablespoon of hot sauce or 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes to the marinade. Garlic Lover’s: Stir in 2 teaspoons of fresh minced garlic. Seasonings: You can add other seasonings such as soy sauce, ground cumin, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, or Dijon mustard.
My family loves this BBQ chicken marinade so much that I find myself making it all year round. It’s just that delicious! Looking for more great marinade recipes? Don’t miss my teriyaki marinade or steak fajita marinade.
